Following on from a previous post about returning to Tas from the midwest of W.A I have come to the grim reality that the wind just does not happen on the east coast like I was hoping for even though the bar was set low.
As a last ditch attempt I am now looking at windfoiling to keep on the water.
Not a big fan of kiting or wind-dinging but saying that I have never been forced to take notice of a light wind alternative so I should never say never.
Just wondering what the bay conditions might be for windfoiling with depth, weed, floats and rope, sandbars, launch locations, rock crops, prevailing wind direction through summer, etc ?.
Any insight or experience that could be shared would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Poley.
Hi Poley,
I've wingdinged off Steiglitz a few times now. Had some super fun sessions on NE with low tide and the weed beds exposed so sailing to leeward of them meant glassy water in 12 knots. Great for getting difficult manouvers down pat. Have also sailed at the same place and lots of seagrass had become detatched from the substrate and was floating in water which meant I kept catching it on foil and having to stop to get it off. It was frustrating. Not sure what causes the seagrass to be found floating in water. Season, tide, temp??? So it's been hit and miss in Georges Bay for me. Generally good.
We get some sea grass a Lagoon during February and March . A wind foil seems to deal with it ok with only the occasional stop needed. I am using a bigger foil 1400 to 1700 and smaller sails. A faster race foil might be more of an issue in these conditions. It's amazing how well the wind foil deals with the gusty offshore conditions that have been so common over the last few years.
